Question

7. How did the rise in sheet music contribute to the growth in piano production an sales?

Answer 1

Let us have a look at the end of the of the nineteenth century. There was already a demand for pianos as the music industry was growing and society was getting more liberal. But, the demand went a lot higher when publishers started printing sheet music.

As the music industry started soaring, publishing houses started to see potential in the market. They decided to start selling printed music sheet. In the beginning, these sheets were quite expensive, but the demand for music did not go down. The sales steadily increased, the reasons can be societal changes, increase in urban populations, better postal services. There was an overall improvement in the distribution and communication of popular culture over the world.

This led to smaller publishers publishing music for smaller musicians. People were now able to write their own songs, get them printed for lower prices, sell them and sometimes even go on to become famous and rich. This increase in sheet music production, creation and distribution was a big push for the music industry. New genres were being introduced, new music tastes came up. The piano was one of the main instruments these music sheets were written for, thus there was a want to play, listen to or even just decorate houses with an instrument like that. Economic changes as well as societal changes brought about this push, thus we can see how the rise in sheet music publications also helped the piano industry.